At Citrix, we believe in choice and flexibility when it comes to public clouds and virtual app and desktop workloads. Some customers may prefer Azure, others AWS, and still others Google Cloud Platform. Increasingly though, we are seeing many customers who run two or more of these vendors for their workloads. This might be for any number of reasons including cost, features, or something else. Citrix is proud of the relationships and integrations we’ve built with the world’s leading cloud hyperscalers. We realize customers have multi-cloud strategies and want to be there to support them, while also taking a hybrid approach and embracing on-premises resources, too.

During our Citrix Cloud Summit, we showcased our multi-cloud innovations with public cloud partners. All the Cloud Summit content is available on-demand, for free. In this blog, we’d like to spotlight some of the exciting updates and key integrations for Microsoft Azure, Amazon Web Services, and Google Cloud Platform.

Microsoft Azure

Azure is a preferred cloud platform of Citrix. In fact, it’s what many Citrix cloud services run on, including the Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops service. Back in July, Citrix and Microsoft made joint announcements on how the two companies planned to further partner and accelerate the future of work. Citrix has a broad array of app and desktop virtualization solutions for Azure, including cloud-delivered offerings and even cloud-managed DaaS with Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops Standard for Azure.

There are many reasons why Azure is an attractive cloud option for customers. One reason is Azure Virtual Desktop (formerly Windows Virtual Desktop) and the unique instance types it offers such as Windows 10 multi-session. Windows 10 multi-session gives users a true Windows 10 experience with superior app compatibility while allowing multiple users per VM to optimize costs and improve manageability. Citrix extends WVD in key areas, including adding hybrid and multi-cloud support, improved management and monitoring, enhanced performance, and stronger security protection. In short, it allows customers to do more — far quicker and more cost effective over the life of their environment.

The energy services company Centrica is a great example of how Citrix cloud services plus Azure Virtual Desktop can result in a big win for customers. In our customer story, Centrica leadership explains how their solution led to consistent user experience, incredible agility, and lower costs while they worked through the start of the pandemic. You can also see a video about Centrica on our Citrix Cloud Summit page.

“Using the Citrix platform, Microsoft Teams and working in an agile fashion, we were able to respond very quickly,” James Boswell, Centrica’s Global Director of End User Computing explained. “Azure and Citrix Cloud services meant we could go rapidly from 2,000 users a day on the new platform to 14,000, taking tens of thousands of customer calls. We had whole contact centers working from home, almost immediately. As we added more people, the platform just auto-scaled to handle the additional workload.”

Amazon Web Services

AWS is the original hyperscaler, launching back in 2006. It’s a strategic platform for many organizations around the globe, including Citrix and its customers. For example, Citrix Content Collaboration leverages AWS for its control plane and back-end Citrix-managed storage repositories.

Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops service now supports VMware Cloud on AWS. This support provides our customers additional flexibility with their rapidly evolving business continuity strategies by securely expanding virtual app and desktop delivery to the cloud – all with tools admins are already familiar with for a hybrid-cloud environment. Read more about the announcement.

Citrix Workspace was also included in the launch of the AWS Digital Workplace Competency Program. Achieving the AWS Digital Workplace Competency differentiates Citrix as an Amazon partner that possesses deep domain expertise. The AWS Digital Workplace Competency helps customers find highly specialized AWS Partners offering solutions on AWS to effectively embrace remote workers and business continuity in the cloud.

For almost 90 years, Rain for Rent has provided water and liquid handling solutions such as pumps and tanks for projects all over the world. Like many, their IT organization constantly struggled to procure the right hardware when needed.

“Instead of replacing outdated hardware, we decided to move to the cloud,” Ken McNeil, director of IT infrastructure explains. “Citrix Virtual Apps was a necessary part of our strategy because we needed it to run our company’s two-tier ERP system — a SQL back end/fat client front-end solution. This provides real business value for us.”

Rain for Rent transitioned their on-premises environment to run on AWS and are realizing great benefits with reduced costs. Read more about their amazing cloud journey.

Google Cloud Platform

Google Cloud Platform has experienced tremendous growth in recent years, and for good reason. It’s catapulted itself into the Gartner’s Leaders Quadrant with unique service offerings, comprehensive APIs, and attractive pricing. Some of the world’s most recognizable brands like eBay, Chevron, and Siemens have made significant investments in it, and Citrix itself uses it for Citrix cloud services.

Recently, we announced support for shared VPCs on Google Cloud, which is ideal for larger organizations and offers efficient handling of network resources. There’s also sole tenant support and zone selection support with Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops for companies requiring that dedicated resource isolation.

The drug development company Oncology Venture has leveraged Citrix and GCP solutions to help cancer patients. With Google Chromebooks, they’ve created a secure end-to-end solution, minimizing the number of vendors they interface with while reducing costs. Read more about their work.

“We use Autoscale, which comes with Citrix Apps and Desktops service, to automatically manage these system peaks and troughs,” explains Principal Infrastructure Engineer Ulrik Christensen. “When resources are not required, it automatically shuts down the unneeded workloads, booting them up again when both countries come online. Autoscale saves us a lot of money on our cloud costs.”

Take Your Pick

I’ve told you a little about the integrations, innovations, and successes Citrix delivers with the world’s leading public cloud platforms and virtual app and desktop solutions. We’ve barely scratched the surface, though, and these partnerships extend far beyond the limits of just apps and desktops, too. Take your pick and deliver workloads from one or more of these proven hyperscalers. Here are some great resources to help you along your way.